Mozgov, who arrived in Denver via the Carmelo Anthony trade in February 2011, grew into one of the Nuggets’ most top assets after filling in for injured starter JaVale McGee last season. In his four-plus seasons in Denver, Mozgov averaged 6.8 points on 51.8 percent shooting from the field, with 5.2 rebounds 1.0 blocks per game.

Wednesday’s trade reunites the big man with his Russian national team coach, David Blatt, and leaves Nuggets fans with a slew of memories, on the court and off. Let’s review:

Timofey Mozgov said he doesn’t allow his friends to talk about trade speculation about him. (David Zalubowski, The Associated Press)

Timofey Mozgov has one rule for his buddies who talk about trade speculation that involves him: Take it somewhere else.

The Nuggets’ center the subject of trade chatter for much of this season. The most recent has concerned him possibly going to Cleveland since Cavaliers coach David Blatt once was his coach on the Russian National Team and the Cavs recently lost big man Anderson Varejao for the season because of a torn Achilles.

Timofey Mozgov was a bloody mess after taking an elbow to the face. (Photo by @NBA)

The already depleted Nuggets got another scare Monday, with about 4:40 remaining in the first quarter against the Hornets.

Ty Lawson found Timofey Mozgov on the right block, but as he went up to shoot, his face met the elbow of Hornets big man Bismack Biyombo. Watching live, the play didn’t appear as bad as it must have felt for Mozgov. He clutched his head in pain befor standing up to head to the bench, blood dripping from his face, Drago-style.

Faried, who is coming off somewhat of a breakout summer with Team USA during the FIBA World Cup, was voted as the league’s best role player (tied with San Antonio’s Boris Diaw), and earned the fourth-most votes for the best offensive rebounder (7.1 percent), as well as the toughest player in the league (7.4 percent, tied with Sacramento’s Reggie Evans).

Faried also garnered the fifth-most votes (7.4 percent) among players expected to have a breakout season in 2014-15.

Timofey Mozgov turned heads with this block of a Kevin Durant shot early in the Nuggets’ win over Oklahoma City on Wednesday night at Pepsi Center. (John Leyba, The Denver Post)

Timofey Mozgov has picked up right where he left off from his breakout campaign last season. His camp has been good, and during games he continues to separate himself in the question as to who starts at center for the Nuggets this season. As it stands now, there isn’t a question; Mozzy’s the guy until the job is taken from him.

His 20 points and eight rebounds in the Nuggets’ win over Oklahoma City on Wednesday night were built on smart basketball combined with aggressiveness. In an 8-for-8 shooting performance, he was routinely in the right spots offensively, always aware and ready to receive a pass or clean up missed attempts. Defensively, he blocked three shots, showing quick feet to beat the offensive player to a spot, and great awareness in the type of defensive play needed at that time. All three blocks were of the help defense variety — on Andre Roberson, Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook. The Durant block was highlight-reel material, but was also an ode to using proper verticality to get a great shot contest finished off with a block at the top of the play.

“(Mozgov) played with (Cavaliers coach) David Blatt on the Russian national team,” Windhorst said. “A starter-quality guy who can defend a little bit, makes about $3 million. Then these non-guaranteed contracts — (F) Erik Murphy, (G) John Lucas, and (F Malcolm) Thomas — that’s who they got these guys to trade for, but Denver’s not giving (Mozgov) up. That’s the guy (the Cavs) want to get their hands on. That would be a nice addition, but they haven’t been able to do that deal so far.

“You’re not going to hold a parade if you got him like you are with Love,” Windhorst added, “but that’s the guy they’re looking at. They haven’t been able to do the deal yet. They’ve been trying to trade for him for the last six to eight weeks and they just haven’t been able to get it done.”Read more…

You know it’s a slow time in the NBA when some of the most intriguing plot lines involve “Finding Timo” and “Faried Willy.”

Luckily all 30 teams are aware of this and, to their credit, have done one heck of a job in keeping us entertained — with movie memes using the hashtag #NBAMovies on Twitter.

Now, maybe we just have soft spots for orcas and big boats, but we (being I) firmly believe the Nuggets soundly defeated the 29 other teams (sorry, “Embiidlejuice“) with their memes. And I will go so far as to say that Tytanic wins it all.

But if you disagree, please let us know. We’re holding an informal poll here because, well, it’s that time of year. Vote away!

(And if you think you can do better than the NBA with movie memes, send us what you got. Email them to njhabvala@denverpost.com.)

NBA players have a history of agreeing to some really bizarre photo shoots.

I would argue that Jason Kidd got things started with whatever he was doing here and here in 1992, and then here in 2000. But Kobe Bryant quickly surpassed him with this head-scratcher in 2010. And then, of course, there was Chris Paul on the trampoline in 2012, which was soon followed with this number by Dwyane Wade (why is she sitting on the hoop?). And we obviously can never forget the many athletic souls who opted to pose buck nekkid for ESPN’s The Body Issue (hi, Kenneth). Too much, guys. Too much.

(UPDATE: A smart reader pointed out that I had forgotten one NBA cover that … oy. Here, just look for yourself.)

Chris Dempsey arrived at The Denver Post in Dec. 2003 after seven years at the Boulder Daily Camera, where he primarily covered the University of Colorado football and men's basketball teams. A University of Colorado-Boulder alumnus, Dempsey covers the Nuggets and also chips in on college sports.

Nicki Jhabvala is the Sports Digital News Editor for The Denver Post. Before arriving in Denver, she spent five years at Sports Illustrated working primarily as its online NBA editor, and she was most recently the overnight home page editor at the New York Times.